Harry not the first to get into a right royal mess

THEY certainly seem to get more than their fair share of trouble, but with party animals like Harry, Zara and Freddie, trouble comes courting at the House of Windsor.

Let's not blame swastika-wearing Prince Harry for all the bad news, notwithstanding his excessive drinking, smoking and public canoodling. And not forgetting the odd punch-up with a paparazzo.

His cousin Zara Phillips, another of the Queen's tearaway grandchildren, also knows how to party.

She had a tempestuous relationship with champion jump jockey Richard Johnson and on one occasion an apparently alcohol-fuelled row spilled over into the street.

But Freddie Windsor, the pin-up son of Prince and Princess Michael of Kent, is probably first in line for the crown of most dedicated royal clubber. He has made a habit of being caught on camera the worse for wear outside London hot spots in the early hours and has also admitted using cocaine.

Prince Harry's uncle Prince Edward and his wife Sophie are also no strangers to trouble and embarrassing the Royal Family. They gave up their business interests in the face of claims they had used their royal status to make money.

Sophie caused another row when she made outspoken comments about some of her royal in-laws to an undercover reporter posing as an oil-rich sheikh.

Not to be left out of the royal embarrassment stakes, Princess Anne is the only member of her family to have a criminal record. She was fined £500 after her pet bull terrier Dotty bit two children.

However, the daddy of them all when it comes to royal gaffes has to be Queen Elizabeth's husband Prince Philip.

In Oban, Scotland, in 1995, he asked a driving instructor: "How do you keep the natives off the booze long enough to get them through the test?"

In China, in 1986, he described Peking as "ghastly" and told British students: "If you stay here much longer, you'll all be slitty-eyed."

In Germany, in 1997, he greeted German chancellor Helmut Kohl as "Reichskanzler" the last German leader who used the title was Adolf Hitler.